Dec 20

Dec 20 13.

Savages - Adore Life

[Matador]

Savages’ 2013 debut album Silence Yourself was a snarling, pugnacious album, from its title, through its contents and especially onto its front cover, where the band posted an uncompromising manifesto. Adore Life, as the title tells you, isn’t quite as confrontational as its predecessor, and in fact finds the band in much happier and life-affirming moods. But that by no means means that they’ve toned back the viciousness of their punk attack or the brutality of their riffs. It just means that when Jehnny Beth is imperially riding the break of their torrential rock waves, she can do so while belting out more about the joys and pitfalls of love, or her carnal desire for excitement.

This might not necessarily be what people want, having been spoiled by the scything menace of debut tracks like “Husbands” and “Shut Up,” but as soon as the needle’s dropped on Adore Life there’s no denying Savages onrushing, incisive bluster. The band whips up a true torrent of guitars in the opening “The Answer,” while Jehnny Beth commands from the peak, crying “if you don’t love me you don’t love anybody. Ain’t you glad it’s you?” From there we set sail on a turbulent journey through the Siouxsie-like dark flirtation of “Sad Person,” the pummeling thirst of “I Need Something New” and the neck-breaking stampede of “T.I.W.Y.G.” By the end you know you’re exhausted, but you are so hopped up on pure rock adrenaline that you feel you could go again, like any good rock gig.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the one red herring of the album, a song of the year contender, the semi-title track “Adore.” This bloodlit ballad casts a spectral shadow off of the immovable Jehnny Beth, with stripped back and atmospheric guitars giving way to her lyrical prowess. As the bass crawls around the dim corners and the guitar sulks in the corner, Jehnny Beth tells us “If only I’d lived beyond regret, I wouldn’t feel guilt for what I take / Is it human to ask for more? Is it human to adore life?” This final question becomes the central theme for the song, and as it slowly builds into the most heroic of finales, Jehnny Beth wails out “I adore life! Do you adore life?”

When there’s music this good, the answer is a resounding yes.

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Below you can see my top 50 albums of the year list.